SBU, hospital honor enormous generosity of Olean man

Feb 27, 2009 | He lived more than 90 years in a non-descript house on Wayne Street, made $5.85 an hour in 1975, his 38th and final year at Dresser Industries.

A simple man of modest means, Frank T. Gelsomino Jr. died Aug. 13, 2007. His legacy will be felt in Olean forever.

Scrimping and investing wisely, tracking TV stock tickers faithfully and making daily calls to his broker, Gelsomino amassed a fortune and made sure two pillars of the community — St. Bonaventure University and Olean General Hospital — were the richer for it. He left the university more than $1.6 million and donated $700,000 to the hospital.

Gelsomino’s generosity was remembered Friday by both institutions, first at a midday reception at St. Bonaventure, and then at the dedication of a Gelsomino family portrait — painted by Sharon Long — at Olean General. Relatives and friends of Gelsomino attended both events.

“Words could never adequately convey what this remarkable man has done for us,” said Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., university president. “I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with him at length before he passed away and I was so impressed with his desire to help others get the education he was unfortunately denied.”

The Great Depression struck just as Gelsomino was about to graduate from Olean High School. College wasn’t an option.

Near the end of his life, macular degeneration robbed Gelsomino of most of his vision, but he never lost sight of his desire to help others after he was gone. His donation to St. Bonaventure established the Gelsomino Family Scholarship Fund. Some of Gelsomino’s wealth came from inheritances from his parents and sisters.

“It was his desire that his donation could help local students attend St. Bonaventure who might not otherwise be able to,” said SBU’s Bob Keenan, who helped Gelsomino set up the scholarship fund.

Townhouse 21 on the east side of campus has been renamed Gelsomino House in honor of Frank and his family, Keenan said.

“That was his wish,” Keenan said. “I was showing him the townhouses one day and a student was nice enough to give us a tour (of Townhouse 21). That’s why he picked that one.”

Gelsomino also had a heart for health care and, through the Olean General Hospital Foundation, he set up the Gelsomino Family Endowment in memory of his parents, Frank and Catherine Gelsomino, and his sisters Josephine and Eleanor, all of whom he credited for making his gifts possible.

“Through this endowment, the Gelsomino family’s desire to provide state-of-the-art health care for generations will come to fruition. Five percent [of the endowment] annually in perpetuity will fund critical equipment and important projects of the future in their name,” said Karen Fohl, OGH Foundation president.

Gelsomino’s enduring legacy will be the love he felt for the place he lived for nearly a century, Fohl said.

“Frank was not a famous person, or a world traveler or a business leader. Instead, Frank was like most of the thousands of us who live and work in this community, weaving a simple tapestry in life that might be indistinguishable from all the others being woven around him,” Fohl said. “He served his country as a soldier, he dearly loved his parents and sisters, and he weathered difficult economic times.

“But what made Frank Gelsomino’s life stand apart from so many others, and what ultimately cemented his lasting legacy, was his generosity to his community and his goal of making it a better place than he found it.”